Episode 78: Orna Donath - Regretting Motherhood

Orna Donath is an Israeli sociologist, a teacher at Tel Aviv University, and the author of the landmark book, "Regretting Motherhood." During our conversation, Orna talks about the women she profiled in her book, the difference between regretting motherhood and having ambivalence towards it, and why and how women end up in a life where they regret being mothers. Orna also talks about regretting motherhood as one of our world's taboo topics, the idea that being childless is "selfish," what it is like for women to "come out" as regretting parenthood, and whether the desire to be child-free is an innate orientation.

This is one of the most important and interesting conversations I've ever had. Amazingly, Orna's work is the first of its kind: a study that gives voice to women whose experience of motherhood has been an unequivocal mistake. We of ...